Inclusive Teaching Strategies for the K

Abstract

Inclusive Teaching Strategies for the K–12 Guitar Classroom

Occasionally, a new student will enter our classrooms and present us with a new pedagogical challenge. While you may initially think that you are not equipped to support the student, upon reflection you may just find a key for that student’s success. More times than not, the solutions and strategies to meet these challenges will benefit not only the new student, but their classmates as well. This article provides teaching strategies for helping the hearing impaired, the visually impaired and students who may struggle with reading musical notation become successful musicians in the K–12 classroom.

“While you may initially think that you are not equipped to support the student, upon reflection you may just find a key for that student’s success.”

Assisting the Hearing Impaired

Two weeks before a school year started, I was told a deaf student would be in my class. I was not sure how I would teach this student, so I watched a documentary about Evelyn Glennie (2005) called, Touch the Sound. Glennie is a professional percussionist who is deaf. The documentary was fascinating, but it did not directly lead to the specificity needed to play the guitar.

Further reflection led to a practical solution, “touch the sensation.” If the student could feel the vibration underneath his left-hand fingertip, he would know that he plucked the correct string. If he did not feel the vibration under his fingertip, he did not pluck the correct string. To know if he played to correct open string, he could simply watch the string vibrate.

Assisting the Visually Impaired

Proprioception is the ability to know where your extremities are in space whether or not you are moving. This is quite useful when playing your instrument. Try this exercise yourself and with students:

Step 1: With your guitar in position, drop your left arm so that it is down and at your side.

Step 2: Swing your arm from the elbow into a playing position without aiming.

Where did your hand land? For me, my hand consistently lands in 7th position. With this information, I am able to reference the fingerboard without looking. If I want to be in fifth position, I swing my arm and feel slight tension as I move my arm to the left. If I want to be in first position, I simply open my armpit. Ninth position is very easy to find by using fine touch. I simply let the side of my fourth finger touch the body of the guitar.Several years ago, a blind student played for me in a master class. I was fascinated by her ability to play along the entire fingerboard with shifts from one position to another. She was a master at proprioception and indiscriminative touch. She learned music from braille music notation and had to memorize it. By use of proprioception and indiscriminative touch, let us examine the process of learning music without vision. ¡Adelita! by Francisco Tárrega (1902) will be used in this demonstration.

Step 1: Learn and memorize the first two lines (mm. 1–8) (Figure 1).

Step 2: Put on a blind fold or close your eyes.

Step 3: Assuming that you are using a standard classical guitar, touch the side of your guitar with the outside of your fourth finger. You should be in ninth position and in place to play the first two notes.

Step 4: Since your third finger played the “D#” on the 11th fret, use the third finger to slide down two frets. Using fine touch, you should be able to feel the frets pass under your fingertips. This will put you in seventh position.

Step 5: Play the “B” with your first finger. Since you are now in seventh position, you can stay in position for the rest of the first line.

Step 6: Measures 5–7 are the same as measures 1–3. Play measures 5–7 (Figure 2).

Step 7: You should now be in seventh position. Your third finger should be on the second string on the “G” at the eighth fret. You need to shift to fourth position. Use fine touch to count 3 frets as you shift. You should now be in fourth position with your third finger on “E” on the second string.

Figure 1.

¡Adelita!, measure 1–8 (Francisco Tárrega, ¡Adelita! Valencia Spain, Antich y Tena, 1902).

Figure 2.

¡Adelita!, measure 5–8 (Francisco Tárrega, ¡Adelita! Valencia Spain, Antich y Tena, 1902).

Using proprioception and indiscriminative touch in this way can help all students with increased facility and shifting on the instrument.

Assisting Students Who Struggle with Musical Notation

Reading music is a learned ability. Many students have difficulty learning this skill. The lines and space are often taught with acronyms like Every Good Boy Does Fine for the lines and F-A-C-E for the spaces. While these may be useful at the onset, many students continue to use these years later rather than knowing the notes. In this system, students are scanning from bottom to top for every note.

The sense of vision can be more efficiently applied. Humans look for focal points in the visual field. Edges outline these focal points. The bottom and top lines can be considered edges. The bottom and top lines are alphabetical. In treble clef, the notes are “E” and “F.” The middle line is also a focal point as it is in the center of the edges. The middle line is “B” in treble clef. I teach my students to remember that “B” is between everything. With the bottom, top, and middle lines as focal references, it is easy to apply the alphabet forward and backward (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

Edges and Center Line. (Kevin Vigil, Edges and Center Line).

When I teach the staff, I ask a student who has never read music before to stand at my white board. I point to the notes on the bottom, top, and middle lines and have them tell me the note names. I continue by pointing to notes just below or above the three points of reference then increasingly point more randomly. Most students can identify the notes on the staff within 5 minutes. This may be a much more efficient approach to learning notes on the staff.

Ledger Lines

Ledger lines often prove to be a challenge for students. Counting lines and spaces below or above the staff can be tedious. Reading ledger lines can be simplified by taking advantage of visual subjectivity. Consider “E,” “F,” and “G” below the staff. If you image a line on the left side of the ledger lines and look above the note head, you can see the capital letters “E” and “F.” For “G,” let your eyes curve around the top ledger line (“C” line) and the bottom of the note head. With a little imagination, it is easy to see a capital letter “G” (Figure 4).

Figure 4.

Capital Letters E, F and G. (Kevin Vigil, Capital Letters E, F and G).

Now, consider “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D” below the staff. Smart phones use icons to represent apps that are not the thing itself. The icon for the phone looks nothing like the modern smart phone, yet we know what the icon represents. The “A” below the staff looks a bit like an airplane. . . “A” for airplane. The “B” below the staff looks like a book balanced on a head. . . “B” for book. The “C” below the staff looks like a cat. The “D” below the staff is down under the staff. With a little imagination, visual subjectivity can help your students recognize notes immediately (Figure 5).

Figure 5.

Notes as Icons. (Kevin Vigil, Notes as Icons).

Conclusion

When a student enters your classroom and presents a pedagogical challenge, think of the student first. This student is likely being challenged in all their classes in addition to yours. The strategies that you may come up with can have far-reaching and positive implications in the life of this student. With a little bit of research and much contemplation, you may just find a key for your student’s success.

Footnotes

ORCID iD

Kevin Vigil

Kevin Vigil holds degrees from Shenandoah University, Yale University and the University of Memphis. He has been published in several music journals and has presented lectures for the Guitar Foundation of America, Yale University, Marshall University, University of South Carolina among others. Vigil currently teaches at Heritage High School in Leesburg, VA, serves as vice-president for the Virginia Guitar Directors Association and as chair for the NAfME Council for Guitar Education.

References

Glennie

Evelyn

. 2005. Touch the Sound. New York: Docurama. DVD.

Tárrega

Francisco

. 1902. ¡Adelita! Valencia: Antich y Tena, n.d. Plate A.y.T. 361.